Town Square

The People Are Saying No To Obamacare

Original post made
by Think about THIS, Another Pleasanton neighborhood,
on Aug 10, 2009

President Obama is a clever and ambitious man. And he has surrounded himself with a clever and ambitious staff.

This bright crew understood from the outset that time would determine if they would succeed with their health care plan.

They understood that their plan, which would require massive new expenditures, new taxes, and major new government interventions, had to be done quickly if it would get done at all.

They understood that it had to be done while the president's approval ratings were still high so that Congress would bend to his will. And that it had to breeze through and land on the president's desk before the general public could scrutinize it and understand the major way it would impact their lives.

As result, we've been hearing for months about the President's deadlines, tied to a list of explanations (economic recovery, if we don't do it now we'll never do it, growing hordes of uninsured, etc.) why the world will collapse if these sweeping reforms were not passed by August.

Now Washington's hot and humid August is here, Congress is adjourned, health care reform did not reach the House or Senate floor, and the White House is in panic. What they knew and feared they now confront. Dropping approval ratings and rising public awareness.

When the administration kicked this off with its White House Health Care Summit early last March, the president's 62-percent approval, per Gallup, was 36 points higher than his 26-percent disapproval. Now, at 56-percent approval and 37-percent disapproval, the gap has shrunk to 19 points.

A new poll from Quinnipiac University has him at 50-percent approval and 42-percent disapproval and dropping!

And, the details of the 1,000-page monstrosity, word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, are being delivered to desktops, laptops, and blackberrys. Group emails, websites, twitter and facebook accounts are churning.

Old discredited socialist ideas meet the new economy and free people are reacting and revolting -- as the White House knew they would if they got a chance to know what was going down.

Ironically, this technologically savvy administration is being hung by its own petard.

Rather than concluding that the public understands what they are being served up and doesn't want it, the White House damage control machine is breaking out the smoke and mirrors, determined to spin government health care past the American people if they won't buy it outright.

Instead of talking about "health care reform", the White House website now uses the focus group tested "health insurance reform." Make the insurance companies the bad guys.

And they, along with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, claim that grassroots protests at town hall meetings are manufactured.

Perhaps they also think that Quinnipiac University pollsters, who now report that 39 percent of Americans "approve of the way Barack Obama is handling health care" and 52 percent disapprove, are being paid off by insurance companies.
Suggestions that grass roots protests prevent the White House from getting its message to the public are hilarious. This president has been on a honeymoon with the press for the last six months. You can't turn the TV on without seeing him.

He has had an unprecedented four prime time press conferences in six months.

No. Their problem is not that President Obama has not communicated. Their problem is that he has. We've got the message and we don't want it. We don't want bureaucrats determining what health care is and how we get it. Or government meddling with how our elderly live out their lives. And we don't want trillion dollar deficits.

Perhaps Mr. Obama, who once suggested he admires Lincoln, will grasp Lincoln's understanding that ours is a government "of the people, by the people, for the people."

Posted by Me
a resident of Pleasanton Valley
on Aug 10, 2009 at 8:33 pm

go live in Europe and experience the care you get there. Yes the pres is copying something that sounds great but has NOT worked in any country. In the UK you pay income tax then an additional tax for health care. GUESS what. It is the same as Cobra.

America is going in the WRONG direction on this. BTW how you gonna pay for all the illegals.oops thats right.... you are gonna pay or them.... sweet free health care for some

I absolutely support Universal Health Care for all. I am lucky to have my job and my medical/dental insurance, which I pay for, but so many others are not able to do so. The health insurance industry is reaping what it has sown--I have absolutely no sympathy for them. And the attempts to frighten and confuse the public are ridiculous.
The public option will be just that--an option for those who don't have an option under the present system. No killing of old people, euthanasia, "death panel", forced abortions, or any of the other asinine lies being propogated by rabid right-wingers.

Posted by Patricia
a resident of Vintage Hills Elementary School
on Aug 11, 2009 at 8:35 am

I'm with JJ (and many others) in supporting universal health care with a public option. I have insurance through an employer (knock on wood!) but have kids in college who will lose my coverage once they graduate. I'm terrified their employers won't offer coverage and won't pay starting salaries that will enable them to buy health insurance.

Medicare seems to work pretty well for my parents -- after all that's nothing more than a public option. It even covered a new wheelchair for my mother-in-law that her private insurance refused to pay for, even though the 15-year-old one was she had giving her sores. (Talk about rationining!) So why can't everyone have a public option similar to the one our elderly have enjoyed for years?

Also, whether the shout-down, shut-down tactics at these town hall meetings are a 'grass roots' thing or organized by pharmacutical and insurance companies, I heartily disapprove of them. I bet the folks doing the shouting would disapprove if Greenpeace or Acorn were using similar tactics against Republicans. All it does is shut down any opportunity for ordinary citizens to get answers about what is really in the proposed legislation. So ask your questions, but then shut up and sit down and let the congress folks answer!

Finally, don't go accusing people of channeling Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi or Rachel Maddow until you stop channeling Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Posted by Parent of Two
a resident of Val Vista
on Aug 11, 2009 at 10:43 amParent of Two is a registered user.

Patricia,

Don't assume that people that are against Obamacare are "channeling Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin".

The reason that Medicare works is because it's limited to the elderly who have (theoretically) paid their taxes and earned the privilege to go onto the public option. Obamacare promises it for EVERYONE.

Tell me, what is the incentive to work then? We've seen a rapid decline in work ethic and job loyalty already since the 50's and 60's. We're filled to the rafters with illegals already mooching off of the working public, and now you want to REWARD people who don't work with free insurance?!?!

If Obama even changed it to "everyone between college and retirement who works and pays income tax" is eligible for Obamacare, I'd be more inclined to give it a chance. As it is, it's just another freebie from the government using MY tax dollars to subsidize lazy, unproductive deadbeats.

Posted by Troll Alert
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Aug 11, 2009 at 11:05 am

Troll Alert Tracking _ name Patricia and JJ.

Pof2,

You are a terrific voice of reason that has tried to have an honest dialogue with other citizens on this forum. The problem is, "Patricia" is another name that the PW Troll likes to use and we are all wasting our time engaging them.

Please consider the pattern of statements before replying to any screen name.

Posted by Patricia
a resident of Vintage Hills Elementary School
on Aug 11, 2009 at 2:52 pm

Pof2,
I do see your point about Medicare being supported by taxes paid into the system. But I'm not sure I could support a plan that cuts off health care coverage for someone who is not working -- that's the situation we are all in now. If we lose our job we lose our insurance coverage. That sets in motion the current spiral wherein the uninsured (some unemployed and some working hard but not making enought to afford insurance) don't get preventative care; go to the emergency room for treatment; and we all end up subsidizing their enormous medical bills because the hospitals have to make the money from somewhere, so health costs go up, and the insurance companies that pay out ever higher costs for their customers make it up by raising OUR premiums, denying us treatments, and looking for ways to cut coverage for the sick just when they need it. Bottom line is, we're paying for it one way or another. There has got to be a better way, and I believe it has to include universal coverage.

Also, I don't assume everyone against the bill as it now stands is channeling Rush, Palin, etc. . . only the ones making wild accusation about 'death panels' and 'socialism' and mandated coverage for illegal immigrants (none of which are actually in ANY of the multiple versions of the bill currently being worked on in both houses of congress). I do refuse to call it Obamacare because at this point it bears little resemblance to what he originally proposed and once both parties finish working on it, it will be the product of MANY, not of one person, however much people love or hate him.

As for Troll Alert, I'm not sure what that's about, so I won't engage. I much prefer to have honest dialague with people like you who remain civil than worry about what the PW Troll is and what Troll Alert is trying to claim.

Posted by Get over it!
a resident of Birdland
on Aug 11, 2009 at 4:06 pm

JJ,
Referring to: "The public option will be just that--an option for those who don't have an option under the present system. No killing of old people, euthanasia, "death panel", forced abortions, or any of the other asinine lies being propogated by rabid right-wingers."

Take another look at Section 1233 of the plan and use your critical thinking skills. I am assuming you read the plan before you started attacking conservatives about what they believe. Am I correct? Did you actually READ it?

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